Civil service jobs remain attractive for graduating students. (Photo : www.womenofchina.cn)
Employment opportunities in the civil service sector might be experiencing a decline, but a survey recently released to the public shows that it’s still the top choice among graduating Chinese students. Careers in foreign companies, on the other hand, ranked as second most desirable in the report released on June 23.
The study, conducted by the Shanghai Statistics Bureau, surveyed 2,071 out of 177,000 students who showed up for their graduation examination this year.
Results show that 33.3 percent of students would prefer working in government institutions than anywhere else. It's the same result as in the 2013 and 2014 surveys; however, the percentages dropped 3.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Working for a foreign company is also growing increasingly popular among graduating students, with 32.1 percent of those surveyed saying they hope to work for a foreign company. It's a 1.4 percent and 5.6 percent increase from the results achieved from the 2014 and 2013 studies.
Not all students are taken with working in the civil service sector, however. Only 12 out of 216 bachelor degree students from the Law School of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics applied for a post in civil service.
"A civil servant's job is not well paid and was only known for its welfare benefits. It is no longer appealing because the welfare aspect is less promising now," said Sun Keqi, an English major student from Tongji University. She aspires to land a job in international business.
Meanwhile, state-owned companies have taken another hit, as only 22.8 percent of students would consider working in state-owned businesses.
The same can be said for local private companies; only 9.5 percent of students ticked it as their first choice.
